Well now, the last few days have again been awesome and no mistake. I got my navigation exam over with and hopefully passed, and had a totally awesome Sunday with the Adventure Girl involving a good selection of mortal sins and a long and interesting geogaching / location gaming / urbex walk which took us to exploring hobo huts in the shoreline and making out behind an abandoned mental hospital, which in my books counts as an extremely romantic walk. After that I finally got a schedule for The Goddamn Novel. It should be content ready by the end of May, and then just a bit of language polish and BAM, out of my hands. And a certain Whitechapelian spontaneously gifted me a year of Flickr pro when I complained my subscription had lapsed because of lack of €€€ - thank you for that! :)

Currently in the dive school, us planning, doing and executing a rather complicated scientific research project involving building artificial shipwrecks in a sea that's still partly frozen - with no adult scientist supervision. Boats, pumps, water, electricity and very little oversight. We may all die a fun and a glorious death.

Trini, papers make the worst mess. Something to do with all those tickly little words and letters, the untidy granularity. Congrats to Argos and Edgar on their evolution to casual aquaticism. Did you guys Put Another Dollar In for that?Robin, you're amazing, you earned the hell out of that nomination. Faux, hope you're having a better week this time out. Roo, stay homeful!

Well, blimey. I've finished all my university coursework, two final exams coming up in the next fortnight or so means the end of four years of study.I've been worrying a bit about what happens next, I don't have the finances to last for long once I'm done and although there are jobs for graduates available, competition is fierce and starting pay is pretty lame. I'd been thinking of shooting for a research post somewhere but those are even fewer and further between relative to the number of unemployed graduates. I'd mostly resigned myself to a life of soul-numbing drudgery. Mostly.

However, I might just have a new iron in the fire. I have an interview the afternoon of my first exam with the MD of a successful local events company. I had heard through the grapevine that he is looking to review his web strategy so I fired him off a quick pitch. Now he wants a meeting to discuss it. He is somebody I know socially, though not over-well, and we have an absurd number of mutual friends in the events/hospitality industry. If I can parlay this shot into decently paid work starting before I grind to a monetary halt, it will be a massive, massive win. If, bigger if, he bites on the whole pitch, well then, being in a position to play with transmedia narrative ideas in the context of a large promotional event with an actual budget would be a better result for the moment than continued study. I'm too excited about it right now - but it's because they have tons of fancy AV gear and lights, fearsomely talented personnel, several amazing spaces available, industry contacts par excellence and the will and the war-chest to resource adventure. Ok. I definitely need to quit squealing and calm down now, stop counting eggs as chickens. I need to study for exams, I need to work up this pitch some more, I need to iron a shirt. I think I might also need to watch Mad Men s3 again.

Congrats on nearing the university finish line!! That's always exciting. The prospective gig you've lined up for yourself sounds like it could be an awesome boost for you, best wishes for that all panning out.

Two things:I got a new (to me) bread machine for my birthday, and I'm finally using it for the first time. I'm excited to see what happens. And eat fresh bread.

Going forward with selling prints. I've even technically sold seven prints already. There's a new store on main street that I recently visited and discovered that alongside the stuff she makes, she also sells artwork/prints and I offered to show them to her, and finally showed some to her today and she wanted seven of them. I just need to get everything together so they're ready to sell (plastic sleeves, backing boards, business cards), most of which is ready (I'm waiting for the backing boards mostly). But next week I should be delivering the prints etc, and she will be giving money, and I will have made my first sale, and two of my sets of prints will be sold out (mostly because most of the sets were given away as gifts. And by that point, I should have my etsy site ready too. And so on. Wooo!

Thank you! He's still groggy, since his half-a-liver can't filter the goofer dust he's on, and he's a little wheezy from not being able to cough due to the incision, but he's doing all right.

It's tough, though, seeing him so feeble, for want of a better word. He's damn near seventy and he's still strong and hale as an ox, but seeing him lift a cup to his lips and just stop, for instance--it's chilling. Temporary, though. Hopefully he's learned his lesson and he'll start going for checkups more than once a decade.

@fauxhammer - glad to hear it. A parent in a hospital bed makes you look at the world in a way that is hard to describe. "God is feeble and I am weak yet I am stronger than God" kind-of-thing. I can't stand hospitals. I mean, I'm glad they're there, to help people and I'll attend if I must but they're on the list of places I don't like to set foot in, along with strip-joints and churches.

The cat is vomiting right now. (That's not very happy!) But tonight is our semi-irregular Whitechapel meet-up, with Oldhat and Greasemonkey and Peter and Lucien and THAT'S happier than Burgess Meredith after the apocalypse with an extra pair of specs. I always bring cool Show 'N' Tell to our salons (The Worst Comic Ever Published ... photos from the First World War ... a wrestling programme from 1936 ... rarities and oddities, culled from a life of fanboy-ism and eccentricity, accent on the eccentric) and this time, My Ladyfriend and Her House will be my Show 'N' Tell. (She just won an award for Excellence in Teaching and Research. I tellya, I'm so proud of her, I'd hijack a sky-writing plane at the point of a sword just to send her a message in the clouds.) We shall have a fine time and we shall toast all of you and remember you, all of you, in our revelries.

I have a happy. I'm wrapping up a visit with Dextra and her crew. They are making a very successful argument for a relocation. Though I might be biased toward accepting Dextra's arguments, which have been convincing.

Having the time to go for walks, and visit the cinema during the quiet time when all the teenage mobile phone crew are in school, has definitely been the biggest benefit of being an indie developer for me so far.

Not having any income at all sucks of course, but the redundancy payment is going down far slower than I expected it would, so I might even be able to stretch to the entire rest of the year on this project if I need to (I really don't think it'll come to that though).

I do miss the daily human contact, but I'm getting out to meet friends often enough that the stir crazy only gets to me occasionally rather than constantly :)

I'm throwing together a last-minute scholarship application. Both of my teacher-provided reference letters are positively glowing, and now so am I.It doesn't make writing a cover-letter-like piece of self-promotion/glowing-praise-of-corporation any easier. But it has brightened up my day.

I'm at home visiting my mom, whose new platonic lifemate came over for dinner last night. He's great. We talked about photography for four hours. While she still lacks in romance, I'm glad the companionship part is covered for now. It's nice to be back in Ontario. I missed streetcars and right-on-red and homeless people that accost you in English. Sigh.

Started a new podcast for the magazine I work for. Really hoping it takes off - if it does, there's a chance that we could expand it and do more shows, featuring better-known bands. Plus, yknow, I get to practice my radio voice. If you have time to listen (and maybe even share...?) I'd value your feedback!

@oldhat Good luck with the job hunt! There are a few music blogs I know in NY looking for interns, if that is at all of interest...

@texture - listening to podcast now. You both have very pleasant radio voices, I appreciate it when people don't use the obnoxious morning radio show voice (I will seriously avoid anything that uses those voices). Looking forward to discovering new artists with your podcast!